BY GUEST BLOGGER: Ben Eisinger

Lion’s Mane Jellyfish

One of the more interesting types of creatures you may come upon while kayaking or beachcombing around Deer Isle are jellyfish. To say that these creatures have a mixed relationship with humans is an understatement. Not all of them can inflict a sting, but the fear of it is enough to give many pause around them, though beautiful from a distance they can definitely appear.

Jellyfish are members of the fittingly named subphylum Medusozoa, named for the gorgon of Greek myth and a nod to a jellyfish’s tentacles, and make up the majority of the phylum Cnidaria. Having existed in some form or other for at least 500 million years, they are the oldest multi-organ animal group on the planet. Penobscot Bay is home to two notable species: Moon and Lion’s Mane.

Moon jellyfish are almost entirely translucent and do not have the long tentacles of so many of their cousins, but instead have a line of short hair-like tendrils which form a ring around the body, or bell, of the jellyfish. This bell is usually 10–16” in diameter, and can be recognized by its four horseshoe-shaped gonads, easily seen through the top of the bell. It feeds by collecting medusae, plankton, and mollusks with its tentacles, and bringing them into its body for digestion. They also can’t really ‘swim,’ instead just riding on ocean currents. This type of jellyfish inhabits worldwide habitats including the North, Black, Baltic and Caspian Seas, Northeast Atlantic, Greenland, northeastern USA and Canada, Northwest Pacific and South America.

The more prominent and visually impressive Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, is distinguished as one of the largest known species of jellyfish. You may have seen these large, deep-red jellyfish washed up on a local beach. These creatures are typically red, orange, yellow, or tan, darkening with age. Lion’s Mane Jellyfish keep to cold, boreal waters in the northern Atlantic and Pacific, though interestingly, individuals have been documented in Australia and New Zealand, which are believed to perhaps be the exact same species. The largest recorded specimen was measured off the coast of Massachusetts in 1865, with a bell with a diameter of seven feet and tentacles around 120 feet long! Also unlike Moon Jellyfish, Lion’s Mane Jellyfish can inflict a sting with their tentacles, even washed up onshore and after they have died. If you see one on a beach, remember that some things are best to appreciate undisturbed and from a distance!

Ben Eisinger is part of the waterfront staff at Osprey’s Echo Sea Kayaking.